Global Pensions Wrap: December edition

Hedge fund vows to punish directors over climate change

 FT: Sir Christopher Hohn’s hedge fund TCI has outlined plans to punish directors of companies that fail to disclose their carbon dioxide emissions.

TCI has warned Airbus, Moody’s, Charter Communications and other companies to improve their pollution disclosure or it will vote against their directors, and called for asset owners to fire fund managers that did not insist on climate transparency, according to letters seen by the Financial Times.  

“Asset owners should fire asset managers that do not require such disclosure,” Sir Christopher said. He also accused BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, of “greenwash” because it does not require emissions disclosures. 

Indonesia looks to set up sovereign wealth fund

 FT: Indonesia is looking to establish a sovereign wealth fund modelled on Singapore’s state investment vehicle, Temasek Holdings, or Khazanah, the Malaysian equivalent, to support local start-ups and to boost economic growth. 

The government has yet to decide the size of the initiative or the source of its funding, according to people with direct knowledge of the plan. But earlier statements from the government on the likely size of any sovereign wealth fund have estimated it at up to $10bn (£7.7bn). 

The proposal is being backed by three ministries: the ministry of finance, the investment ministry and the ministry in charge of state-owned enterprises.

Two more Aussie supers agree merger

 Ignites Asia: Australian superannuation pension schemes MTAA Super and Tasplan Super have penned a merger deal, in a move that will give rise to a provider with A$23bn (£12.1bn) in assets.

The two supers first announced at the beginning of July that they had entered a binding memorandum of understanding to investigate a potential merger. They have now signed an unconditional agreement to merge at the beginning of October 2020.

MTAA manages more than A$13bn in pension assets for employees in Australia’s motor trades and allied industries, while multi-industry Tasplan looks after A$10bn in assets. The merged super, which will have around 335,000 members, will be led by Leeanne Turner, current chief executive of MTAA.

China’s fund firms targeted by bloggers turned blackmailers

 Ignites Asia: Online bloggers are coercing money out of fund houses in China by offering to drop negative reports they intend to publish about the companies, in exchange for certain monetary benefits.

These bloggers, many of whom were financial journalists for major mainland publications, have set up their own investment sites that attract hundreds of thousands of retail investors and fund professional followers on China’s multipurpose messaging app WeChat and Weibo, which is viewed as the Chinese version of Twitter.

A Shanghai-based senior communications manager of a Sino-foreign fund management joint venture tells Ignites Asia that many of these bloggers prepare negative articles about fund houses or their investment strategies, and then offer the company a chance to drop the report in exchange for advertising income or sponsorship, which has become a main source of revenue for certain influential online bloggers.

MSCI opens up its ESG ratings to the masses

 Fundfire: MSCI has moved to make its environmental, social and governance ratings available to the public.

The move broadens access to MSCI’s ESG scores across more than 2,800 companies in its MSCI ACWI Index, via a free search tool on the company’s website. In 2020, the firm plans to open up ratings for the 7,500 companies on the MSCI ACWI Investable Markets Index.

“We want to encourage open discussion among investors and companies on how to improve sustainability across the board and hope that making the MSCI ESG ratings available to all will facilitate these discussions,” said Remy Briand, head of ESG at MSCI in a statement.